The Newcastle Jets are flying high after their first win of the season but co-captain Cassidy Davis knows they will be quickly grounded if they do not back it up against Sydney this weekend.
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The Jets host the defending champions in the first match of a club double-header at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.
While Newcastle produced a confidence-boosting 2-1 victory over Perth in Perth in round four, Sydney sustained their first loss of the season in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Melbourne City.
Davis is expecting a fired-up Sydney side as a result and the Jets centre-back was looking forward to the battle.
"We always want to beat Sydney and I'm sure they always want to beat us as well," Davis said.
The Jets improved to four points and fifth place with the win but have the no-points bye in round six and risk dropping off the pace of the front-runners if they do not take something from the game this weekend.
"We definitely need to get the three points," Davis said. "And before a bye and before Christmas break as well, all of that comes into play.
"It's a really big game for us and if we can get those three points we can keep crawling up the ladder."
It is the first time Newcastle have played the Sky Blues on home turf in two years and Davis is hoping for the same result as the last time they traded blows there.
"They're a tough team. They've got some great players and ... it's always exciting to play against Sydney," Davis said.
"The last time we were at the stadium we beat them 2-0 ... you look back and say you can do it, but we need to make sure we turn up on the day and play to our game plan and get the three points."
It will be no easy feat. Sydney bring plenty of star power up the F3 in the likes of Matildas Chloe Logarzo, Cailtin Foord and Alanna Kennedy. But Davis has no doubts the young, and mostly home-grown, Newcastle side will rise to the occasion.
"I think you lift against those teams as you can see from the Melbourne City game [in round one]," Davis said. "We definitely lifted against quality players, so we just have to make sure we take that into Sydney and make sure we're on our game and get a win."
While happy with his side's performance in Perth, Jets coach Craig Deans told the Newcastle Herald post-match a continued focus was composure under pressure.
"In the second half, once we gave the goal away [against Perth] we had a 20-minute period where we went back to a little bit of panicking ... One of the biggest areas we've got to improve on is managing the game and understanding that we're not going to be in control of the game for 90 minutes," Deans said.
"It might be 20 or 30 minutes of every game where you're under a lot of pressure and we've got to understand that it's not the end of the world when it starts happening and just to stay focused and not panic.
"We're getting better at it but we let that period become 20 minutes rather than five or ten."
Davis urged a strong home crowd to turn out early on Sunday to show their support for the W-League.
"Our active support group has been amazing," Davis said.
"They're really helping bring everyone from Newcastle together to come and support us and hopefully we can get a good crowd from kick off and not just when the boys roll in."
The W-League game is at 4pm. Newcastle play Melbourne City in the A-League fixture at 6.30pm.